Officials under criticism for fabricating pollution figures

(Xinhua) Updated: 2006-12-28 17:45

BEIJING -- China's State Administration of Environment Protection (SEPA) has
revealed that environmental statistics released by some local governments are
false and local pollution indices have been fabricated.

A
SEPA official said that according to the figures submitted by the 26 regional
governments, the goal set by the central government of reducing main pollutants
by 2 percent this year should have been reached.

However, the reality is that the chemical oxygen demand (COD) and sulfur
dioxide, China's two main pollutants, increased by 2 percent in 2006, according
to SEPA's calculations.

"The figures on pollution control reported by the local government dropped
remarkably this year, while the real environmental situation continues to
deteriorate," said an official with SEPA.

"The inaccurate figures were caused by insufficient supervision of the local
governments and possible fabrication," said the official.

The administration will send working groups to the provinces to check the
local environmental statistics.